To Break a Mask and an Addiction
by Eclipse Blade
Summary: A transfer student with a rocky past makes his way to Shino's school from America. He'll snap at anyone who brings up his family, and he seems to have a problem with everyone, preferring to be alone. but despite his antisocial personality, something about him tugs at Shino, something familiar. (starts before Phantom Bullet arc and goes into Phantom Bullet arc)


_A transfer student with a rocky past makes his way to Shino's school from America. He'll snap at anyone who brings up his family, and he seems to have a problem with everyone, preferring to be alone. but despite his antisocial personality, something about him tugs at Shino, something familiar._

* * *

I sigh for what seems the hundredth time since I got on my 14-15 hour flight to Tokyo, Japan. Who am I? You might ask. My name's Ethan Anderson. Very American I know. All I'm doing is waiting for the last hour of my flight to be over because my phone died an hour ago and I can't even fall asleep because I already slept. The only thing that will save me from boredom is the fact that I brought my sketchbook in my backpack. But it's kind of hard to sketch anything if I have no inspiration. I start to run through everything that has been happening recently to see if I can dredge something up to draw. Let's see. I'm moving away from everything I've grown up knowing. Said goodbye to all my friends. We may have said that we will keep in contact but, I have a feeling with how busy I'll be and the time difference that I will fall away from the group.

I shake my head at that thought. Ok, less depressing topic, the new school I'll be attending, I should be able to make new friends, not to mention that I can't wait to get back into video games, especially that gun oriented MMO I've been hearing about. I may actually transfer my account over for that one. I've been holding onto my ALfheim Online account for a while but, I don't have the drive to play it anymore recently since the falling out my family has been having that is causing me to move in the first place. However that's not the only reason I'm moving, the reason for the fallout on my family has to do with an Illegally gotten copy of the NerveGear and a certain VRMMORPG by the name of Sword Art Online.

I won't lie, when I was told that we were stuck in the game until it was beaten I was devastated but after a day I realized that either I help beat the game or I can just chuck myself off the edge of town, so I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and went quest hunting and grinding, barely taking time to rest, the debuffs I had accrued by the time I did, not to mention my health. Let's just say I jumped up 5-10 levels everytime I went out. Solo. I also made sure I didn't stand out. always sticking to the shadows and letting others take credit while I disappear into the crowd, but despite my hardest to stay unknown I had picked up a name only known to info brokers or those looking for me specifically, I was known as the PKK Shadow of Death. My reputation wasn't the best due to the fact that I was a "Red" Player, but I am justified with what I did, I killed quite a few green bait players. That is where one party member would act like a player in need of help, then the group of player killers would swoop in a large group and kill the rescuers. the color of your icon doesn't reflect the disgusting nature of some of the Player Killers. So I went hunting, but my family didn't take to kindly to my killing of other players when they were told that they died in real life, so I became an outcast in my own family and I had to leave.

If they never want to see me again I'll give them their damn wish. I'll stand by my words that fuckers like that need to fucking die. I sigh one last time as I see that we are landing at the airport.

"I forget how deep in thought I can get sometimes," I mutter to myself as I put my sketchbook back in my backpack. It's a fairly uneventful trip through the airport and to my apartment, I take a walk to where I'll be going to school, and it looks better than where I was going before. Closer too. On my walk back I notice a liquor store, I try to rip my attention away but… I walk in anyway, due to my facial hair and my looks I can be easily mistaken as old as 25 so I don't get that surprised when I don't get ID'd for being in there, I grab four large bottles of whiskey and buy them then I continue on my way to my new apartment. Every step home becomes increasingly heavier when I do finally do get into my apartment the whiskey feels as heavy as my guilt. So I fix that with a glass and one of the bottles of whiskey. Glass after glass. Drinking till the pain and guilt went away. I put the bottle in the fridge and sit in a drunken haze in a chair in my room staring at my phone and at the image I currently have pulled up of that FUCKING DEATH GAME! Sword Art Online! I take a gulp of whiskey from the glass I carried with me from the kitchen. And set it on the nightstand next to me.

"Call me a murderer, SORRY MOM! THAT I COULDN'T LET THOSE PIECES OF SHIT LIVE!, think that they can get away with what they've done." I slur to myself. Slowly getting angrier with where my thought process is going. I look at my phone again and see the news article that I had open. "THEY HAD TO DIE! THEY HAD TO! THEY had to." I whimper at the end putting my face in my hands and letting out a choked sob as tears fall down my face. "They had to," I choke out as I take another gulp of whiskey and let the burn distract me. Then my rage comes back "YOU THINK I DID IT FOR FUN! YOU DON'T KNOW THE HALF OF IT! WHAT ABOUT HOW I FELT ABOUT ALL THOSE LIVES WEIGHING ON ME! WHAT ABOUT THAT!" I rage to my empty apartment. I finish the glass and throw it in rage, I don't look when I hear it break against the wall. "What about how I felt as I did what I did so no one suffered at the hands of murderers," I say to myself as the last tears go down my face. I reach into my pocket and pull out my handkerchief. I wipe my face and just sit there and wallow in the chair until I fell asleep.

* * *

So Ethan finally falls asleep after getting wasted and raging at his family and his guilt about the people he had to kill. what will he discover as he stays in Japan? Is his guilt the only reason he drinks? To find out more wait patiently for the next chapter _New Game, New Weapons, Old Me._

If you liked it please follow it and give a review.

If you have a question on anything related to the story, review or PM me.

I'm always open to criticism!

-Eclipse

P.S. all chapters after this will be longer. this was just a prologue.


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